Rodney

I don't actually know what this story is about, except that when people talk about supporting our troops and "they knew what they signed on for"... well, sometimes they didn't.

I know a woman who five years ago was in her mid-20s and drifting. She had a good education that she'd never quite finished. She was married but unemployed, but while she could help her husband in his business, she was basically just doing scutwork.

So she decided to find herself in the Army Reserve. Do something, accomplish something, get her life going. She signed up for -- I forget what it's called, but they're the community relations people who come in after an area's been occupied and work with the locals. And she got the assignment, and went through her six-months training and got out. Started to go back to normal life.

Two months later, they call her back. Somebody realized that she has a certain interesting skill and so they 1) transfer her to another branch of the military which will remain nameless and 2) put her on active duty for 13 months to do, uh, certain things and learn yet more interesting skills.

So, 13 months go by, and she's out again. And this is all _before_ 9/11. She tries to settle into school or a job, but 2-3 times a year the military pulls her out for a month's duty overseas, then sends her home. So she's _still_ got no life.

Then 9/11 hits. Didn't affect her immediately, but the military keeps calling her for random months three times a year. One day she comes back from a month overseas and finds that the rest of her unit was transferred to a war zone while she was gone, where they stayed for over a year.

So now Iraq happens, and the occupation of Iraq happens, and her unit (not that long back from overseas) is getting ready to go over....

Then she gets pregnant. Lucky for her: doesn't get her out of the military, but it does get her out of overseas duty. Should keep her out of it until early next year, by which time things will change radically if they're going to change at all.

Don't know how I feel about all this. Yes, she should have read the fine print, but I'm sure the recruiting officer didn't urge her to. (And of course the thing that exempted her from going overseas is only open to women.) Found herself in a place she didn't expect to be in. If there's a moral to the story, I guess it's "read the fine print," and "When you join the military in any way, you surrender your will to its will."

User Name

I wouldn't call having to be on active duty "fine print". Serving is the whole point of the reserve, not just some sideline condition. If you want to reap the rewards of the reserve, be prepared to make sacrifices. As much as I am against the war, as is most of the TFP, I find it very unreasonable for her to expect the whole "one weekend a month, two weeks a year" thing. They were training her to be an active participant of the military, whether it be a translator or a ground soldier, and she should be very grateful for being able to remain in the US for the duration of her pregnancy.

Pellaz

I hear reservists complaining almost every day, and my sympathy for them "being misled" or "doing something they didn't sign on for" is non existent. The reserves were a waste of money for a long time, and to complain about having to finaly do the primary function of your job is just irritating.

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forseti-6

Sounds like Civil Affairs.

I too don't have any sympathy for any reservist that complains about being deployed. It seems in the past many reservists saw the reserves as an extra paycheck and that's that. However, now that we're in a conflict and are short on troops, we have no other choice but to use reservists. Frankly if I had ever taken command of any reservists and they used those excuses that they didn't want to be there, I'd have them court martialed right away for dereliction of duty or cowardice. It's sad, but they have noone to blame but themselves.

Also a correction to your statement "Yes, she should have read the fine print, but I'm sure the recruiting officer didn't urge her to. " It would have been an enlisted recruiter. All army recruiters are enlisted (except for specialty recruiters - AMEDD, Jag etc). But from my experience a lot of recruiters don't care about the person they are recruiting. I'm sure her recruiter didn't tell her about the possibilities to being deployed. Still, that's her responsibility to do her homework before she joined. No remorse.

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shalafi

She may not have understood what she was signing up for but thats her fault not the Armys. That is exactly what the reserves are for. They get called in when the military has a need for their services.

Cynthetiq

I'm gonna have to say that it's not seeing the forest for the trees. The point of being a reservist is that if they need you you can be called up for service before your average person gets "drafted".

If you are part of the club, even the smallest member you'll still have to in some way shape or form if need be fulfill all the duties of a fully vested club member.

We take for granted too much the little things that we don't want to see and figure that it's just those items we want to be there and only those. But you have to take good with the bad, and that's the part that everyone seems to hate.

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onetime2

She was an adult who made an adult decision. Her commitment in the reserves extends for at least 6 years I believe, it may be longer depending on the training she received. During those 6 years the DOD can call her up, extend her time in service during times of national need, order her to proceed to wherever they choose, and not care one lick about what she wants to do instead.

Personal responsibility people. If she is still blaming others for her situation I suspect she has a little more searching to do before she "finds" herself.

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wallace1

As a person who was raised as an Army brat and brought up on base most of my life I have to say that I don't really ahve alot of sympathy for her deployment. Active service is always a possibility in the service, it's that simple. I do hope that she returns safely.
As far as the poster that said that "most of the tfp is against the war", I can say that this one, is not.

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Sparhawk

I had sympathy up until she got pregnant. I've seen to many women use that to either get out of a deployment or to seperate from service. It sickens me.

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losthellhound

You join up, you get the rewards, you play your part. Especially if she has a skill that the armed forces needs..

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pocon1

I agree with paying the piper, but a lot of people have a problem with feeling used to fight Bush's wars. (maybe not my opinions, but the opinions of many Americans) (also, this is not to threadjack about who started what war). Many people sign up for the reserves to DEFEND America. Different people have different feelings about what defending America is. Prior to 9/11, how many call ups for reserves were there? And what was the chance of getting called up? I went to North Georgia College and State University, Georgia's military college. One poor girl who is a student there has been called up three different times. In 3 years she has completed 2 semesters. She signed up to pay for school and then commission in the Army. She is M.P. First, she guarded Fort Benning. Then she went to Camp XRAY. Then she went to Afghanistan. If you feel that you have paid your time and done your duty, now you cannot even leave if your unit is going to be deployed and you are a short timer. How many private businesses have been wrecked because owners are getting called up repeatedly. At the most, poeple expected to fight one war, not two or three.